By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 28 June 2013
Edit Thread
RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

Nintendo's been decling for about 4 years now from the peak days of the Wii/DS and he's botched both the 3DS and Wii U launches despite having ample time to learn from his mistakes. Ken Kutaragi was given the axe after a few months of the PS3, even though he basically built the entire Playstation division and the PS1 + PS2 sold 250+ million consoles worldwide.

I agree he should be given some slack, but I think he should also acknowledge he needs some help as he's obviously made several poor decisions in guiding the company since the Wii peaked in 2009 or so and consequently put the company in bad positions with both the 3DS and again with the Wii U.

There should not be such wild highs and lows, of the Wii being the fastest selling console ever for its first few years, to then rapidly declining, and then the successor to Wii being basically the slowest selling console out of the gate since the Dreamcast or Saturn. Unacceptable, especially when they had years to prep for this launch.

Iwata didn't have ample time between the botched 3DS launch and the Wii U launch. Games take about two years to develop and if you realize that you have a problem in summer 2011 and need to shift parts of your workforce to speed up development of key titles for the 3DS, then there's really no time to change anything significant about your home console strategy.

Kutaragi was given the axe after burning through the PS2 profits with the PSP and PS3 in a short matter of time, as well as shifting additional R&D costs of the PS3 into other divisions. Iwata's decisions haven't come close to wiping out all the profits of the previous generation. His decisions have been really bad though and he should have seen it coming before greenlighting the entire Wii U concept.


Wii U (Project Cafe) dev kits were sent out over 2 years ago now, that was when it started leaking all over the internet.

Iwata really didn't realize the system may need a "big" title on the scale of Metroid Prime/Mario Galaxy/Halo/Uncharted then? Really, the guy is out of touch software wise IMO. Such a game would be ready by now, but no forsight on his part.

They bet the entire farm on Nintendo Land being a blockbuster hit that would carry the system for months. It's not even like they supported the Wii much for 2011 or 2012 either.